Well, the babies are yet to really gain much weight. But they are only 3 days old. I have noticed in other litters that there can be a little drop in the first few days. Peppa delivered a HUGE 180g, 15cm long baby girl this morning. But she was stillborn. I do not know if she died during labour, or if Peppa left her in the sack after her birth... she was a perfect replica of her mum, but wasn't cleaned at all. I think the shock of having to give birth to a newborn the size of a 2-3week old was too much for poor Peppa. She has however, taken some of Leilani's litter under her wing. I watched her this afternoon, and she's taken a particular liking to Promise and Peanut. You can see Peppa and Promise in the photo above. It is a tragedy to loose Peppa's baby girl, but a blessing to have her helping with the nursing of Leilani's bubs (none of them seemed terribly interested in my supplemental feeds).

[Little Peanut enjoying the mountain of grain!]

[Puddles and Pudding in the big cage]

We had a huge day today on top of this morning's sad find. All cages were cleaned, all piggies weighed, Bonnie, Jairo and Alba went to new homes and Panda and Puddles met their new family and were put on hold. I got some updated pics of the proud new daddy Malakai (shown at the very top of this post and below) and discovered that Violet's pelvis is already starting to dilate too. So we might have yet another litter within the week.

The last piggy left for adoption now is Lulu. She was due to meet her new family tomorrow, but they have had to let her go due to unforeseen circumstances. If you think you might have a forever home for little Lulu, let me know at eleb2000@hotmail.com.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

After endlessly checking on Miss Leilani for the last 6 days that I've thought 'it could be any day now' - she finally had her babies this afternoon. (and after much deliberation/genetic researching, I've concluded that the babies MUST be Malakai's. Three of the five have rosettes, which are dominant, so most definitely could not have come from a pedigree texel. Plus, there is a distinct lack of agouti - which Liam has produced in All of his offspring!).

It was exactly 1pm when I walked in and found her quite obviously in labour. I watched her for a few minutes while she had contractions, but no resulting baby. I quickly washed my hands and grabbed some paper towels and came back to gently lift her up to see what was happening. There was a baby's face out (and mouth moving), but it was stuck at the broad part of the head/ears. With each contraction I helped gently ease his big head out, and put her back down to finish the rest herself with another contraction. She got straight into cleaning him up, and then about 5 mins later baby no. 2 arrived. The photo above is her cleaning him up while baby no. 1 helped! (Yes, the first born was actually helping lick his brother! So incredible!).

Then after another 5mins or so, baby no 3 arrived. I was still very worried that more might get stuck, but second and third came out perfectly, and Leilani gave each baby appropriate attention going right to the faces of each new arrival to clear away the membrane. Here she's eating off baby no. 3's sack.

It stayed like this for another 10-15mins, while I wondered if this was it, or if there were more. As she moved around I could see another lump, so knew there was a no. 4 on the way. She laboured for a little while to get him out though, and I wonder if he got a bit stuck in the birth canal? Once baby no. 4 arrived, baby no. 5 was born almost on top of him. I grabbed no. 4 and let Leilani deal with no. 5. I knew immediately that something was wrong with no. 4. He was tiny, and wouldn't sit straight in my hand....

These are Leilani's five beautiful babies at 4 hours old. In order of birth: Pudding, Puddles, Promise, Peanut and Panda. Peanut is the runt, weighing about half that of his 4 siblings, and with what appears to be a head-tilt.

When he was first born he couldn't even hold his head up. From what I've read, it appears that this is either a result of being oxygen deprived during birth (from being stuck for a little while) or from being crushed while growing in the womb (which is also quite likely considering he was stuck somewhere in amongst 4 much much bigger siblings).

'Pudding':

This is the first-born 'Pudding'. He's a big healthy boy in a tri-colour mix of white, slate and cream. He will grow up to look just like a sheltie. He weighed in at a very decent 100g. (Pudding is ON HOLD)

'Puddles':

Puddles is GORGEOUS! He is the second born, and he too is a tri-colour mix of slate, cream and white. But he will end up with the Sheba coat of his daddy Malakai. He has a stunning big broad nose and beautiful colouring. He weighed in at 90g.

'Promise':

Promise was third-born and is also a stunner! She is a tri-colour mix of chocolate, cream and white with a gorgeous rosetted coat that will grow very long, and give her a Sheba-Mini-Yak look. She weighed in at 90g. (Promise is on HOLD)

'Peanut':

Fourth born - little Peanut. He has gorgeous colouring with a mix of ginger, chocolate and white. And a stunning rosetted coat that will grow to look Sheba-ish as well, if he can pull through... he does seem to be getting better and better as the hours go by. I think it's going to be a long night, but he seems to have a fighting spirit! He weighed a very petite 55g.

'Panda':

And the fifth-born baby Panda. She is going to grow up to look just like a coronet (like her mum). She is a tri-colour as well, but mostly slate and white. She has the tiniest hint of cream by her jaw line! She weighed a whopping 100g!

Not the best week this week - lots of losses, and lots of only small gains. I wasn't expecting another massive week like last week though, but if we have such small gains next week I'll have to look at what's going on. Most concerning was Liam's loss of 80g. He seems perfectly fine, but is definitely lighter to hold. His teeth look great, he's active and eating. He'll need an extra close eye on him this week I think.

Gypsy and Grace went to their wonderful new home this morning, as did Rafia and her daughter Juji. Both families were beautiful, and I think the girls are going to be muchly loved. We now only have baby Jairo left looking for his new home, and two of my big girls. (Check the adoption page for more info).

Well, it's Christmas Eve, so you might not hear from me for a few days now (unless Leilani gives us some Christmas babies overnight!). Have a wonderful Christmas, and give your piggies an extra cuddle and a chin rub for me!

Thursday, December 22, 2011

With all the lovely weather we've had recently, we now have a backyard full of lush green grass. Which is about to be mowed right back tomorrow as part of our 'clean up the house for Christmas visitors' plan for the next few days!

So with that in mind, I decided to relocate our puppy dog Oliver to the fenced off section down the side of our house (with some big juicy bones to compensate for being kicked out of 'his' turf), and we let the girls run free (full supervised ofcourse!).

They LOVED it, and the smart/brave ones very quickly found where the best, softest and most juicy grass was growing! I would have to say that there are few things in life so simply satisfying as watching guinea pigs eat. They are the most thankful little beings - whether it be some vegy scraps left over from a salad, or access to a whole yard of grass. They are always so enthusiastic about food!!!

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Two months ago, I was lucky enough to be able to give 5 beautiful sisters a new home here at the caviary - Tigerlily, Twizzle, Ivy, Zinnia and Demi. Demi has since moved out with Sheba to live with an incredible family in C&C cage comfort. But I thought I'd take some updated pics of the remaining 4 sisters. Above is Tigerlily, the only sister with the long, soft curls. She's looking stunning, and I actually have trouble telling her apart from my pedigree texel Jasmine sometimes. (Tiger's curly bum is shown below)

This is Twizzle, rex crossed with a texel x, but she looks just like a rex! The longhair gene is recessive, but from what I understand, only partly so. It appears to be possible to have an animal carrying both the short and long haired gene and be completely short haired as expected (like Twizzle), but you can also get bits of long hair showing up on the rump (like this girl), or even a coat with a bit more length than usual - (mid-length). It seems to depend on just how the genes interact with each other, and the other genetic markers. All very fascinating stuff, but is really just my convoluted way of saying that even though Twizzle and her other rex-like sisters have a recessive long-haired gene - you wouldn't know by looking at them! One of the joys and mysteries of guinea pigs!

This is Zinnia. Also very rex-like - but with a slightly different texture. Not sure what's happened genetically here, but it feels like she's gotten the softness of the texel coat, but the length/crimping of the rex coat. Her fur isn't as 'springy' to the touch as a normal rex, but I don't know if this is due to the lack of roughness, or due to the difference in the kink/curl?

And Miss Ivy - Very much like a classic little rex here!

Oh, and I just had to include these pictures of Lavender Mist and Romeo. They've become quite good friends, and make such a handsome pair. Both incredibly gentle and relaxed piggies.

Both of these two appear to have the mid-length coats. I know Romeo's genetic background (Very basic breakdown: 3/4 texel, 1/4 rex), but Lavender's is a bit more mysterious. Her parents weren't even curly haired, so somehow both the recessive curl, and a touch of longhaired genetics have snuck in there too!

You can see on the side-profile picture of Lavender, how the curls on her rump are a lot longer than the fur at the front/over her shoulders. This seems to be both a really common appearance in both the mixed long/short haired pigs, and also the curly x long pigs. Delilah also shows the same coat-length difference from shoulder to rump. Where Lavender's coat is soft and wavy (like a shorter texel), Delilah's is course and crimped (like a long-haired rex). I wonder if we have two different 'curl' genes at work here, or if the difference in the coat texture comes back to the short/long hair genes interacting differently in different animals!? So many questions to answer... lol

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Thought it was about time I posted some updated pics of Ginger's bubs Grace and Gypsy. The girls are 2.5 weeks old now, and from what I can tell of their 2-week-old coats, I think we're going to end up with some funky, fluffy Abyssinians here! Very much like our 5yr old Custard (who is also had a pedigree longhaired dad and an aby mum!).

Grace started out as the weaker of the two surviving girls, but she's currently gaining faster than her sister! And if there's trouble to be gotten into - you can bet that Grace is in the middle of it! :P

Gypsy is a little more subdued, and actually let me get a few different angles when taking her photos. Her colours are just stunning.

Gypsy at 2.5 weeks.

Both Gypsy and Grace are currently unclaimed, so if you're thinking that these little ladies would fit into your family let me know! All their information can be found on the 'Available' page.

These are just a few pics I managed to snap Yesterday afternoon after the mammoth weekly Friday Cage Clean out and piggy weigh-in (which literally takes me ALL day! lol).

I like to let the girls run around while I'm cleaning as they get to explore the fully enclosed yard in supervised safety, and you can just see the delight in their little faces as they find scattered kids toys to hide under, and extra juicy patches of grass to munch...

... but it meant that by the time I got them all rounded up, and back inside, they were exhausted! Guinea pigs naturally have a nap time in the middle of the day - and in all the excitement, my lot were running laps instead! It was so cute to see them lazing about like pampered princesses!

All I can say is WOW. That has got to be one of the best weeks we've had with consistent gains in a long time. Even the nursing mum's gained. I was sitting here trying to work out what we did differently this week... and the only thing was the new batch of grain! They're all obviously enjoying this lot!

[Yeti's hair is already growing back in!]

I've been waiting on a few of my girls to determine if they had buns in the oven, or if it was just a bit of excess grain-gobbling. But this week we've confirmed Millicent (fathered by Malakai), Violet (father by Pooh Bear - the texel on loan), Sparrow (fathered by Liam), Subi (most likely fathered by Liam, as Sprout didn't seem to have done the job), and Yeti (fathered by Liam).

*Yeti and Liam are going to have STUNNING babies! They will be alpaca x texel.

*Subi and Liam's bubs will be purebred rex x pedigree texel.

*Sparrow and Liam's bubs have a high possibility of being curly (Sparrow's two litter-brothers were both curly haired, so it's very likely she carries the recessive gene)

*and Violet and Pooh Bear will have either purebred texels (if I can't get his paperwork) or pedigree if I can.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

I am very happy to be able to confirm Miss Millicent as pregnant, due approx 15th Jan 2012. The father is Malakai - so if these babies are anything other than lilac fluff-balls I think I'll have to buy myself a hat so I can eat it! :P

I've also just listed Alba on the 'available' page. She's one of our non-breeder pet-girls, and only available for adoption as part of our decision a few months ago to try and keep some space for rescue/foster pigs as needed. She's such a gorgeous little lady, and will make an awesome pet for an awesome family. She'll be staying here until the right family comes along :)

Another good week. Nearly everyone gained - and most importantly the babies gained. This is Ginger and her girls at 1 week old. I rarely actually see Ginger feeding them herself (which might explain why she gained so much even as a nursing mum this week!?), but it looks like Gypsy and Grace are finding other nipples nonetheless!

No new pregnancy confirmations yet. Millicent has been with Malakai for about 7 weeks now, and there's just the hint of a belly swelling at the moment, so I thought I'd pop her back in the mansion cage as I know she prefers it there. She climbed straight up the ramp and took over the upstairs section. I should know in a fortnight or so if that swelling is baby-related or food-related!

Malakai has proven himself with Peppa's pregnancy confirmed last week, so at least I know he's figured out what to do with his little 'weapon'. Having the girls pregnant during summer is definitely not ideal though, but when there is only a limited window of opportunity for a female to have her first litter, and that's when it falls, you have to weigh the risks of too early/too late first pregnancy versus the season. I choose to provide extra comforts/additional TLC - ie. have them live inside in aircon/constant access to cool water/trimming any excess coat as I personally feel the risk of pregnancy too early/late is greater than the risk of the weather. (Please keep in mind that this is just MY opinion though, and there are many who would disagree and prefer to breed later in the animals life).

And just for good measure - I thought I'd add an updated pic of Elodie (Malakai's sister), now 4 months old. She's growing up so beautifully!

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About Me

I'm a mum of two crazy munchkins who have turned my world upside down in the few years that they've existed! To allow us to follow our dreams and spend as much quality time with the kids as possible, my hubby and I have turned our little bear-making side business into our full time job! We have a bear supplies website called www.furaddiction.com where we sell all manner of imported luxury faux fur, German mohair, Emma's Bears kits, patterns and OOAK finished soft sculpture designer bears.